please define " yous ladies ",

Please submit this question to Garden Web's Harvest Forum. the folks there are very knowledgeable and will be able to give you the guidance you need. Please be aware that just because a canning recipe is printed in a cookbook or magazine or posted on a blog, it does not mean the recipe is safe and follows current safe canning guidelines. Also remember that there is a distinct difference between a "cooking" recipe and a "canning" recipe. Your concern about the amount of butter is a valid one, so getting some feedback from the Harvest Forum is your best bet. The folks there are most helpful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Harvest Forum

yous ladiessize>
noun
1. noun An urbanized missquote of "you ladies"
2. noun A common, stereotypical yet unoffensive assumption that the primary audience of one's post on the Cooking Forum is comprised of ladies.

My apologies to any member who took offense at what was a simple typo. At one time, there a small group of women in the harvest forum that critiqued recipes for viability. I will post this question there.

Shambo, thanks for the help.

That's a lot of vinegar, but I'd leave out the butter. I make a caramelized red onion relish from Small Batch Preserving and it calls for caramelizing the onions with just a little brown sugar and it comes out great. And I think the butter might make the jam greasy.

It does sound good.

I agree, I'd also can it, but leave out the butter. I made some three bean salad with oil, approved by the NCFHFP, and it was far too oily.

Add me to the list of people who thinks it sounds really good.

Annie

Annie I've relied on your information for the last 10 years I have been on these boards. I'm surprised that you used a recipe with oil in it. I seem to remember you cautioning against the recipes (i think from the jam ladys recipes that call for 1/4 teaspoon to reduce the foam). Has there been new info that says a certain percentage of oil is OK? I would like to make it with the oil. I think the butter would add something to the flavor.

I originally got the recpie from food.com who claims that it came from saveur. There is the link:

http://www.food.com/recipe/caramelized-onion-jam-170996

Does knowing where it came from give anyone anymore confidence that I wont be killing myself and my loved ones if I make it? The 20 lbs. of red onion are already sitting on the kitchen floor.

Thanks again for being a constant resource. you are the best!

Curious, the bit of butter in jam has never been considered a problem, I just don't find it necessary. And thank you, I'm flattered that you've found me helpful over the years, sometimes I don't even think I know what I'm doing, LOL.

Truthfully, I can't guarantee the safety of that recipe with butter in it, so if I could find a way to leave it out, I would, just to be absolutely certain, even though some other things can now be safely canned with butter/oil.

The "experts" have changed the guidelines somewhat about eggs/oil/grease/etc. Now you can safely can lemon curd, complete with eggs, but it only stays good about 3 months, then quality is bad. Rules used to be "no oil", but now the experts have come up with that bean recipe and it calls for oil. There's a recipe that has bacon canned in beans and I was always taught that was unacceptable.

I do tend to put more stock in a recipe I got from a known source, rather than some unknown place on the internet, but the testers at magazines are probably not food safety experts either, so for canning recipes and expertise I rely on the Ball/Kerr/Bernardin people, NCFHFP (National Center for Home Food Preservation at University of Georgia) and my local extension service from Michigan State University or other state extension offices.

With today's liability issues, though, good luck getting a decision from the extension service, they'll qualify everything now in self-defense unless you have a friend there.

Oh, and Happy Canning, I think those onions would caramelize just fine without a quarter cup of butter!

Annie